In financial economics, a financial institution an institution that provides financial services for its clients or members. Probably the most important financial service provided by financial institutions is acting as financial intermediaries. Most financial institutions are highly regulated by government.

Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial institutions:^[1]

1. Deposit-taking institutions that accept and manage deposits and make loans, including banks, building societies, credit unions, trust companies, and mortgage loan companies
2. Insurance companies and pension funds; and
3. Brokers, underwriters and investment funds.
   
   

   In financial economics, a financial institution an institution that provides financial services for its clients or members. Probably the most important financial service provided by financial institutions is acting as financial intermediaries. Most financial institutions are highly regulated by government.

   Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial institutions:^[1]

   1. Deposit-taking institutions that accept and manage deposits and make loans, including banks, building societies, credit unions, trust companies, and mortgage loan companies
   2. Insurance companies and pension funds; and
   3. Brokers, underwriters and investment funds
      
      

      An institution is any structure or mechanism of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals within a given human community. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior.^[1]

      The term "institution" is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public service. As structures and mechanisms of social order among humans, institutions are one of the principal objects of study in the social sciences, such as political science, anthropology, economics, and sociology (the latter being described by Durkheim as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning").^[2] Institutions are also a central concern for law, the formal mechanism for political rule-making and enforcement
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
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